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“Ghost Song” (“Geister”), from multi-prized German auteur Fatih Akin (“In the Fade”), has been set as the opening night film at this year’s San Sebastián Film Festival.
A world premiere, “Ghost Song” is hailed by the
San Sebastián Festival as “a poetic drama about loss and longing.” It will bow at San Sebastián on Sept. 18, playing in main competition, after a opening gala where Werner Herzog will accept a San Sebastián career achievement Donostia Award, giving San Sebastián’s get-go a strong German accent, after Germany has scored nine productions and coproductions at Locarno, 22 at Venice and 18 at Toronto.
Sold by Beta Cinema and starring Eren M. Güvercin (“Banksters”) and Mariam Dawoud, “Ghost Song” turns on Farasha, 20, who after her death, enters Faris’ dreams, sparking what is described as “a passionate romance that blurs the line between dreams and reality.”
Akin has called “Ghost Song” “a love story, but not like the Patrick Swayze-Demi Moore film — though maybe it is a mix between the Patrick Swayze-Demi Moore film and Jean-Paul Sartre. It’s a mix of that.”
The berth marks the latest honor for Akin who broke out with 2004’s “Head-On,” which scooped a Berlin Golden Bear, while The Edge of Heaven (2007) took a Cannes best screenplay, while 2017’s “In the Fade” won best actress at Cannes for Diane Kruger tour de force performance and a Golden Globe in the foreign language film category.
A career packed by big fest prizes and critical acclaim came to near total halt with Venice competition contender “The Cut,” bog budget ($21 million) tale set about the 1915 Armenian genocide, sparking a more eclectic mid career with a return to form via 2017’s “In the Fade” but also the more experimental neo-horror “The Golden Glove,” and last year’s “Amrun,” inherited from friend and mentor Hark Bohm and a 1945 coming-of-age tale which has proved Akun’s biggest commercial hit of his career in Germany, helping to sae his production company, he has recognised.
Arthouse for teens, as Akin has said, “Ghost Song” looks like another departure though reflecting his resolution “with each film to do it different.”
As younger audiences replace ageing baby boomers at archaise cinemas in Europe, “Ghost Song” also reflects a marked move toward younger-skewing arthouse, whether a conscious market ploy or not.
“Ghost Song” is produced by Akin’s label Bombero International and Warner Bros. Film Productions Germany, in co-production with Rialto Film, his partners on “Amrun.”
